Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Tangkoko and Halmahera 13 to 20 Jul 2013

TANGKOKO AND HALMAHERA 13 TO 20 JULY 2013

[photo gallery here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47362072@N00/sets/72157635072487597/]

Snapshot

This is a very attractive birding trip to do.Cost was US$1,700 for the 9 nights, for our group
of 3.Guide Theo Henochcan be recommended.Birding is very good; 97 endemics in
Sulawesi, 64 in Maluku according to Coates’ Birds of Wallacea.There are very few birds in common with west
Malaysia.Some examples of these are
collared kingfisher and white bellied sea eagle.There
are interesting endemic or limited range mammals to see; the spectral tarsier,
crested macaque and bear cuscus in Tangkoko.Local food was surprisingly good throughout, with sambals and chilli
very much to our taste.Not once did we
have to put up with nasi goreng.They
cook simple but well even in the little villages of Halmahera.However accomodation, away from the towns, is
very basic.

In planning the itinerary, this was no hardcore birding
trip.Tangkoko was the main interest, as
it is well-protected forest and rich in birds.Time allowed us to fit in one extension.Lore Lindu in Central Sulawesi holds the montane endemics, but it’s a
long trip, routing through Makassar.Dumoga-Bone national park, would have been a good addition, with many of
the montane endemics available at Gunung Ambang, and the maleo breeding grounds.But it’s a 7-hr ride there.On the other hand, a 50-min plane ride away
is Ternate, and a short one-hour boat trip gets us to the big island of
Halmahera, North Maluku with a whole different avifauna, and of course the
standardwing.Sadly, there are no
protected parks here and the forest is going fast.

Our birding outcome.At Tangkoko we had a decent haul, missing mainly the raptors and
owls.At Halmahera, we had only 1 ½
days, losing one day to Ternate airport closure due to bad weather.So we missed a lot of pigeons, parrots, owls,
friarbirds but bagged the standardwing.Total of 58 lifers for me, very good for only 4 full days.

Maps

Manado and Ternate

Halmahera locations

Guiding

Theo Henoch can be recommended.Thanks to Yong Ding Li and Peter Ericsson for
endorsing him.He ran a travel agency
and birders asked him for guiding.So he
started learning the calls some years ago.Does a decent job of identifying the birds, knows the locations.Professional about organising the trip.

At Tangkoko, we relied on local guide Samuel from Mamaroos
lodge. Make absolutely certain you have exclusive use of Samuel's guiding service. We thought we did but we were joined by a non-birder couple
also staying at Mama Roos.Samuel was otherwise a
great guide.Local guide at Halmahera
and Ternate was Iskandar, but his english was not adequate to express himself
or understand what we wanted.We fell
back on Theo and that was ok.

Birding Notes

Sulawesi is same time zone as Sing although 4 hours flight
east, so dawn 5:30am.

Halmahera is one hour ahead of Sulawesi.Dawn here is 6:15.Its pretty dark under the canopy and most of
the birding is in the forest.In
addition, the birds do not come close like in India or Australia.Mostly shooting at max ISO 6400, and
handheld, so there were few useable shots.List of expected birds provided by Theo is at Appendix 1.He mentioned 105 birds.

Locations

North Sulawesi.

Tangkoko National Park is excellent birding, well-protected
and bird-prolific.But the birds are
high in canopy.

Manado, on our forced one-night stay at Novotel, we birded
the grounds for buff-banded rail,and
the nearby padi fields, but nothing much else.

Gunung Ambang near Dumoga-Bone, 6 hrs from Manado.Montane up to 1,700m. But not as many of the
montane birds as Lore Lindu.Good chance
for bare faced rail, cinnabar hawk owl, matinan flycatcher.

Gunung Mahawu, just outside Manado, great for scaly
kingfisher.

Danau Tondano, near Manado, good for waterbirds and migrant
raptors, comb crested jacana.

There is also the option of taking the 1-hr flight north to
Pulau Sangir, and climbing Gunung Sahengbaliran for 4 endemics.Local guide available, Wesley Pangimangen
(Rainbow Losmen).But it’s a difficult
and slippery climb and I regretfully ruled it out.

Halmahera.

Binagara.We were
here for the standardwing.But it’s a
long and difficult trek, 2 ½ hrs in.

Other locations. The traditional Anu’s location is still showing,
although forest quite denuded.He does
an overnight camping trip to catch them early.Weda diving resort is promising.They have bought and preserved some 175 acres of forest back of the
resort where the birds lek.Just 20 mins
walk in the morning.But it’s expensive,
Euro 75/night for double.And we did not
know about it earlier.

Ternate.Hoped to
pick up great billed parrot at Danau Tolire but dipped.There is not much else on this small volcanic
island that you can drive completely around on the coastal road in 2 hrs, but
this is one of the historic spice islands that the colonials fought over and is
culturally interesting.

Practicalities

Health

Standard malaria pills required.Chiggers are a serious pest in Tangkoko, with
many trip reports warning of them.Guide
said they are ‘very bad’.First day, I
went in armed with full chigger protection; repellent cream, 75% DEET spread on
legs up to knees, leech socks, and Theo’s DEET repellent spray on top of that.
He resprayed us every hour.After the
first day, I omitted the cream.No
bites.It may be the period of our
visit, they were less serious.Get the
75% DEET cream from Golden Mile Beach Road army supplies shops for $4 a
tube.25% DEET spray repellent, 3M
Ultrathon from NTUC Unity pharmacy.

Currency

We paid guide Theo Henoch in US$, all other expenses in
rupiah.Change in Singapore.

Away from major towns, accom is going to be basic losmen;
squat toilet and no washbasin.At
Tangkoko,the accom is a strip of
lodgings at Batuputih village, just outside the park entrance.Mamaroo’s, is run by a friendly family of
Sangir islanders.Basic, non-aircon, no
hot water.Advantage is that recommended
guide Samuel is based here.Food is
decent, once we got them to stop the caucasian-friendly cooking and go more
local and pedas.Minahasa is christian
so we get pork here.

Binagara.Just one
losmen.Clean enough.But I cannot take this for more than a couple
of days.Big helpings of food, simple
cooking, decent.Halal food as Maluku is
majoritymuslim.

Sidangoli.There is
just one losmen here, again very basic.Food was quite good but J and F had bedbugs in their room.We left early for Ternate after one
night.

Ternate.Stay at
Villa Marasai; boutique hotel with 11 rooms, up the slope of the volcano a
little way.Take the big main bedroom
with big balcony, sea view.Near the
university.Sumptuous food.There was just us staying.

Call roaming worked throughout.Wifi available limited places.In the Bunaken Lounge in Manado airport.In the Villa Marasai in Ternate.

Land transport provided in our tour package, comfortable
Toyota, not SUV, but adequate to drive into Tangkoko.In Halmahera, we actually had two vehicles
with a support team of 4; main guide, local guide and two drivers.

Day-to-Day Birding Journal

Sat, 13 jul

Short 4 hr flight, but it was like a whole different world. We met guide Theo Henoch.Incidentally, he is not Minahasan but from
Pulau Sangir to the north.We got into
the car for Tangkoko, did not pass through Manado, little signposting on roads,
no luxury cars, just functional Toyotas and budget cars.Hilly terrain.Many christian churches, presbyterian.

We crossed the breadth of the north Sulawesi peninsula
surprisingly quickly from the Celebes Sea in the north to the Moluccas Sea in
the south.Stopping at a rise looking
over the sea, there is Lembeh Straits, and Lembeh island to the south east.This was Tembuan which we would come back
to.Sulawesi
swiftlets, showed, white rump visible. Brown
cuckoo dove,yellow sided flowerpecker, high and against the light.

Settled in at Mama Roo’s, which is a family-run place, the
family from Pulau Sangir.The
recommended local guide, Samuel is attached here.A short walk away is the beach, black volcanic
sand, outrigger canoes pulled up, floating fishing platforms out to sea.White bellied sea eagle, was the first raptor
of the trip.Grosbeak starling, big flock, orange bill, red on rump not visible.
Light fades by 5:30. Dinner watered down for Caucasian tastes.Only satay was good, but Theo could not id
the meat, said it was chicken.Room
barely tolerable, with no air con, no hot water, and a weak fan.Burned my mozzie coil with the windows open
for ventilation.

Tangkoko, view from high point at Tembuan

Sun, 14 July 2013

Dawn here is 5:45.Woke 4am, breakfasted 5am, very simple white bread and artificial
tasting jam. Then walking in to park, slender billed crow, black naped monarch.White
rumped cuckooshrike, 3 of them high in canopy, next to a hair crested
drongo.Yellow billed malkoha, upskirt view.Collared kingfisher.Silver
tipped imperial pigeon, looking just like pied imperial pigeon at this
distance.Would need much closer look to
check for silvery sheen on the wing tips.White necked myna, incredibly
long tail.Sulawesi babbler.Green backed
kingfisher, spotted by Marcel, the assistant guide, who is understudying
Samuel.Lilac cheeked kingfisher (renamed lilac kingfisher by IOC), duller
than Coates field guide illustration.It
was to be our finding that many of his colours are too bright.White line on wing hardly clear.Ashy
woodpecker, climbing up a trunk, foraging.

We knocked off 1130, lunched back at the lodge, rested till
3pm, then drove in along the only access road, to the tarsier info sign and walked
to tarsier sleeping tree. The cuddly fellows were there, about 6 of them.Owling from 6 to 7pm, meant sitting on palm leaves,
de-chiggified by Theo’s spray.Total dark, some fireflies.But
no minahasan or sulawesi masked owl showed.Some desired birds calling but
not seen; pied cuckooshrike, black billed koel.

Mon, 15 Jul

Woke 4am, entered Tangkoko 5am.Great to have first sighting of purple winged roller. Then crested macaques at a rubbish dump by the
beach, large troop, maybe 30 individuals.More views of green backed kingfisher.Then the sulawesi dwarf
kingfisher, perched in the understory.We stalked the red bellied pitta a whole long hour, but a flash of red
and blue was all I saw.And another long
hour waiting while Samuel looked for the ochre bellied boobook with no success.Bat flew in, like a giant butterfly, folded
its wings and hung upside down from a branch like a big butterfly pupa.We came across a two-metre snake that they
said was a cobra.

Pied cuckooshrike, black
billed koel, high up in canopy.These
birds called long before we had sightings.The guides searched for openings in the forest middle storey to look up
at the canopy, and we only had distant views.Lunched late at 1230, after 7 hours in the field, footsore and sweaty,
but no time for a bath before our 2pm boat.The boat took off north, to enter a small river lined with
mangroves.Samuel had not noted the
tide, and it was too low for us to enter the river, so we disembarked for the
boat to clear the sandbar.Paddling up
and down, the river was barely wide enough to turn the outrigger boats,
sometimes dragging on a snag.Not very
productive and no great-billed kingfisher.Sacred kingfisher.Big channel
billed cuckoos, flying overhead twice.

Before dinner, we walked out to the park again to catch the sulawesi scops owl, several calling,
finally located one 5m off the ground.Photographed
in the beam of Samuel’s torchlight.

Tue, 16 Jul

Rainy morning and we delayed departure to 6am.Then to Tembuan, the high spot.We really could have used a scope.So many birds were at limit of id. We walking
down a slope, to the work shed of the palm sap collectors.It started to rain again.Grey cheeked green pigeon, ornate
lorikeets, really gaudy birds, sulawesi black pigeon (white faced dove,
IOC) again. Pygmy hornbills, golden
mantled racquet tails frustratingly moving about the tree, but in poor
light and not showing their upper parts. Also yellow
breasted racquet tail.Sam spotted a
Sulawesi cicada bird flying overhead, but untickable.

With the poor weather, we opted to leave early for Manado, right
after lunch, for some shopping and the only chance to see the town.

Wed, 17 Jul

Wasted day.Out to the
airport by 8am, then it turned out Ternate was closed for landings on account
of bad weather.But it was not till 3pm
that they told us the flight was off till next day.Bus brought us to the Novotel near the
airport.Good hotel, decent dinner.In the grounds, golf course, few minutes birding,
T found buff banded rail, white breasted
woodswallow, then F spotted distant grey
sided flowerpecker.

Thu, 18 Jul

Pre-breakfast birding in the hotel grounds turned up yesterday’s
rail again, collared kingfisher, with darker crown than our sg one, munias
scaly breasted and chestnut.Waiting for
the call to the airport, T took us to a road with padi fields, but no black
faced munia that we wanted, just the grey sided flowerpecker again, and white
bellied woodswallow.Hassle at the
airport, but it was due to poor communication on their part, our plane left at
10am.Beautiful approach to Ternate, the
volcanoes looming, scattered houses fringing the coast, roofs glinting in
sunlight.

Boat crossing to Sidangoli, then cruising up and down the
mangroves just south of the town , T calling, beach kingfisher showed up after 20 mins.Reaching Halmahera, finally in a new
avifauna. Lunch at Rumah Makan Mari Sayang at
Sidangoli, nasi ayam goreng, with sup ayam and their chili relish made with
belachan, sedap.Long drive Sidangoli to Binagara, about 3 hrs, much of it coastal along the deep bay. Birding along the road, blue and white kingfisher.Called sombre kingfisher, paradise
kingfisher at their usual spots but no response.

Drab whistler calling, melodious, but no show.Metallic
starlings, red eyes separate from the other starling moluccan with no red
eyes.And the juv starlings with white
underparts.Swiftlets flying around
have to be moluccan swiftlets, but separate them carefully.Common
cicadabird, that T initially thought was dusky oriole, and I thought one of
the cuckooshrikes. Golden bulbul looking like black naped oriole.Note 3-way split; seram golden bulbul
(Moluccas, Seram, Ambon), northern golden bulbul (Sangihe, Togian, Banggai
islands), buru golden bulbul (Buru islands).Rainbow bee eaters, two perched.Goliath coucal, last bird of the day.

Binagara losmen, clean but too basic; squat toilet and no
bathroom sink.One iron-barred window
high up was only ventilation.They
brought in a fan.Dined after our
baths.Simple but decent food, meat that
I could not id and did not touch.

Ternate volcano with tiny Pulau Hiri foreground

Fri, 19 Jul

Walking in to the lek,
dusky scrub fowl sleeping, seen in the dark early morning.We arrived late at the lek, 7:15am, fortunately
3 birds still displaying. On the way out,ivory breasted pitta, grey
headedfruit dove, blyth’s hornbill,
brown cuckoo doves, dusky brown oriole,
common golden whistler (black-chinned
whistler, IOC), spectacled imperial
pigeon. Saw a pitta’s nest, with one
egg inside

Walk to the lek was difficult,2 ½ hrs, with several stream crossings, 3 of
them over my rubber boots.Muddy trails,
ankle-deep mud in places.My boots a
little too tight, cramping my right toes.And eventually myleft big
toenail turned blue black.Slipped on
one upslope, climbing up from stream, right hand went into a patch of nibong,
pulling out thorns by torchlight.Miscalculation by guides , we arrived late, luckily several of them
still displaying, but 15m up, and we watched for ½ hr.We had asked for nasi goreng breakfast, and
they expected us out mid-morning, and the food was waiting at the trail head.We eventually emerged at 1230, very footsore,
my water long exhausted.The birding
would have been good in the forest, but with the long return walk ahead, we did
not want to stop.

On the drive to Sidangoli, scanning the common dollarbirds,
hoping for purple but we dipped. Red cheeked parrot.Raining as we drove, and T suggested to
cut the drive birding and head straight for Sidangoli.

Sat, 20 Jul

Morning birding around Sidangoli, driving along the
road.Area called Kali Batu Putih.Walking up tracks, logging roads.Quite productive and it was a shame our time
was so short in Halmahera.Drab whistler, really rather drab,
identified by call, eclectus parrot,
pair, through the scope,with the very
colourful, red female.Somber kingfisher, with the plaintive
call, and the undertaker colours, cream
throated white eye.We saw a faint
white ring around the eye unlike Coates’ drawing.Moluccan
starling, with no red eye like the metallic starlings.They are much less numerous than the metallic.Rufous
bellied triller, black sunbird, males and females, male showing bright blue
on crown.Finally pinned down this
common bird.Gurney’s eagle, in flight overhead.Little to separate it, much like black eagle, just little lighter
patches midwing.A flock of about 20 blyth’shornbills coming and going from a tall tree
in distance.

Expecting the usual afternoon showers, I had suggested
moving to Ternate after lunch. Iskandar
took us on sight-seeing tour first, kraton and portugese fort. We circumnavigated the island on the coast
road.At Danau Tolire, deep crater lake
walking around the periphery, Iskandar saw the great billed parrot, but turned
to call us too loudly, and it flushed across the lake.Just a bino view of it retreating,
untickable.Other individuals called but
no sighting.No channel billed cuckoo
either. Proceeded to Villa Masarai, gem
of a boutique hotel, up the hillside, near the university.There is one hectare of plantation trees
behind the hotel.Dinner was best meal
ever, two big garoupa in a hot and sour sauce.

Sun, 21 Jul

Next morning, some birding around the lodge grounds, but
nothing new showed.Then set off to the
tiny airport.Reaching Manado, taxi to
jetty, then boat to Bunaken beach landing at low tide and wading ashore. Afternoon, 3 hours of enjoyable snorkeling,
private boat with guide.Bunaken is one
of the great coral reef dive spots and not to be missed.Reef just off the hotel, Pantai Pangalisang,
which hotel diver instructor says is best spot. Chalet was beautiful, with patio at the cliff
edge, windows open to the sea, private.Food was indifferent, watered down to ang-moh tastes.

Mon, 22 Jul

Another round of snorkeling in the morning, a good two
hours, then off to Manado for F to shop for foodstuff,and uneventful flight back.

Last meal of bubor manado; rice pumpkin and veggie, tastes much beetter than it looks

Bird List Achieved

This is my lifer list for the trip.There were a few more birds seen, but
basically the avifauna is very different from Mindanao, Philippines to the
north, or Sabah to the west or Bali to the south.

1

Philippine Megapode

Megapodius cumingii

14/7/13

Tangkoko

2

Dusky Megapode

Megapodius freycinet

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

3

Gurney's Eagle

Aquila gurneyi

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

4

Buff-banded Rail

Gallirallus philippensis

17/7/13

Manado, Novotel hotel grounds

5

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Macropygia phasianella

13/7/13

Tangkoko

6

White-faced Dove

Turacoena manadensis

16/7/13

Tangkoko

7

Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon

Treron griseicauda

14/7/13

Tangkoko

8

Grey-headed Fruit Dove

Ptilinopus hyogastrus

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

9

Black-naped Fruit Dove

Ptilinopus melanospilus

14/7/13

Tangkoko

10

White-bellied Imperial Pigeon

Ducula forsteni

16/7/13

Tangkoko

11

Spectacled Imperial Pigeon

Ducula perspicillata

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

12

Silver-tipped Imperial Pigeon

Ducula luctuosa

13/7/13

Tangkoko

13

Ornate Lorikeet

Trichoglossus ornatus

16/7/13

Tangkoko

14

Red-cheeked Parrot

Geoffroyus geoffroyi

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

15

Yellow-breasted Racket-tail

Prioniturus flavicans

16/7/13

Tangkoko

16

Golden-mantled Racket-tail

Prioniturus platurus

16/7/13

Tangkoko

17

Eclectus Parrot

Eclectus roratus

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

18

Goliath Coucal

Centropus goliath

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

19

Yellow-billed Malkoha

Rhamphococcyx calyorhynchus

13/7/13

Tangkoko

20

Black-billed Koel

Eudynamys melanorhynchus

15/7/13

Tangkoko

21

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Scythrops novaehollandiae

15/7/13

Tangkoko

22

Sulawesi Scops Owl

Otus manadensis

15/7/13

Tangkoko

23

Sulawesi Swiftlet

Aerodramus sororum

13/7/13

Tangkoko

24

Purple-winged Roller

Coracias temminckii

15/7/13

Tangkoko

25

Green-backed Kingfisher

Actenoides monachus

13/7/13

Tangkoko

26

Lilac Kingfisher

Cittura cyanotis

14/7/13

Tangkoko

27

Blue-and-white Kingfisher

Todiramphus diops

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

28

Sombre Kingfisher

Todiramphus funebris

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

29

Beach Kingfisher

Todiramphus saurophagus

18/7/13

Halmahera, mangroves near Sidangoli

30

Sacred Kingfisher

Todiramphus sanctus

15/7/13

Tangkoko

31

Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher

Ceyx fallax

15/7/13

Tangkoko

32

Rainbow Bee-eater

Merops ornatus

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

33

Sulawesi Hornbill

Penelopides exarhatus

14/7/13

Tangkoko

34

Knobbed Hornbill

Aceros cassidix

14/7/13

Tangkoko

35

Blyth's Hornbill

Rhyticeros plicatus

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

36

Ashy Woodpecker

Mulleripicus fulvus

13/7/13

Tangkoko

37

Ivory-breasted Pitta

Pitta maxima

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

38

Moluccan Cuckooshrike

Coracina atriceps

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

39

Pied Cuckooshrike

Coracina bicolor

15/7/13

Tangkoko

40

White-rumped Cuckooshrike

Coracina leucopygia

14/7/13

Tangkoko

41

Common Cicadabird

Coracina tenuirostris

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

42

Rufous-bellied Triller

Lalage aurea

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

43

Black-chinned Whistler

Pachycephala mentalis

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

44

Drab Whistler

Pachycephala griseonota

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

45

Dusky-brown Oriole

Oriolus phaeochromus

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

46

Slaty Monarch

Mayrornis lessoni

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

47

Standardwing

Semioptera wallacii

19/7/13

Halmahera, Binagara forest

48

Seram Golden Bulbul

Thapsinillas affinis

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

49

Sulawesi Babbler

Trichastoma celebense

13/7/13

Tangkoko

50

Cream-throated White-eye

Zosterops atriceps

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

51

Metallic Starling

Aplonis metallica

18/7/13

Halmahera, Sidangoli-Binagara road

52

Moluccan Starling

Aplonis mysolensis

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

53

Sulawesi Myna

Basilornis celebensis

13/7/13

Tangkoko

54

White-necked Myna

Streptocitta albicollis

13/7/13

Tangkoko

55

Grosbeak Starling

Scissirostrum dubium

13/7/13

Tangkoko

56

Yellow-sided Flowerpecker

Dicaeum aureolimbatum

13/7/13

Tangkoko

57

Grey-sided Flowerpecker

Dicaeum celebicum

17/7/13

Manado, Novotel hotel grounds

58

Black Sunbird

Leptocoma sericea

20/7/13

Halmahera, Kali Batu Putih

References

·A Guide to the Birds of Wallacea, by Coates,
Bishop and Gardner, 1997

Appendix: Expected Bird List

This is a list of expected birds provided by Theo Henoch,
marked with an x in column TH.For
comparison, birds achieved by Phil Gregory (see Ref.) are listed under column
PG.There are some other endemic birds
listed by Coates are marked e.Some
other endemics are not seen.[email me
for an excel spreadsheet which is easier to read.]